Pub Date : 2020-10-01DOI: 10.1080/10611959.2020.2139534
Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer
As Russia’s society has been wrenched by the war in Ukraine and civicpolitical divisions at home, one of its most critical problems, the environment, has been pushed aside. Yet ecological values and activism are more important than ever, as Russia’s citizens must contend with the exacerbation of natural resource destruction and climate crisis ramifications on an accelerated and unprecedented scale. The articles featured in this finale double issue of our journal were solicited well before the war began in February 2022, but most have been written and revised since, with each author feeling a sense of urgency and distress. What began as a project to highlight the ecology activist successes in a few high-profile cases illustrating civic society mobilization in Russia has instead moved to analyzing disaster zones in various degrees of devastation. What can we learn from the experiences of valiant ecology activists and besieged civic society leaders? How can Indigenous knowledge gleaned and practiced over centuries help in managing ecological and societal stresses? How can Russia’s urban scientific and rural Indigenous communities communicate productively with each other, especially when some scientists are Indigenous? How could state legal and policy mechanisms mitigate environmental destruction rather than abet it? These are some of the questions asked in this issue. The authors come from diverse backgrounds, Russian and non-Russian, rural and urban, scientific and political, activist and scholarly. Each article qualifies as anthropology in the best, broadest sense of the word. The authors are ethnographic in their descriptions, sensitive to human rights at many levels, and strive to accurately portray the voices of their interlocutors. Each case featured here resonates beyond the local, although their venues and contexts may not be well known or understood in the European or English-language-oriented world. Some have briefly appeared in the international news due to their shock value, whether massive fires that spread smoke from Far East Russia to Alaska in the summers of 2020–2022, ANTHROPOLOGY & ARCHEOLOGY OF EURASIA 2020, VOL. 59, NOS. 3–4, 167–176 https://doi.org/10.1080/10611959.2020.2139534
随着俄罗斯社会被乌克兰战争和国内的公民政治分歧所折磨，其最关键的问题之一——环境问题被搁置一边。然而，生态价值观和行动主义比以往任何时候都更加重要，因为俄罗斯公民必须以前所未有的速度应对自然资源破坏和气候危机后果的加剧。我们杂志的最后一期双刊中的文章是在2022年2月战争开始之前很久就被征求的，但大多数都是在那之后写的和修改的，每个作者都感到一种紧迫感和痛苦。最初的项目是强调生态活动家在几个引人注目的案例中取得的成功，说明俄罗斯的公民社会动员，但现在却转向了分析不同程度破坏的灾区。我们可以从勇敢的生态活动家和被围困的公民社会领袖的经历中学到什么?几个世纪以来收集和实践的土著知识如何有助于管理生态和社会压力?俄罗斯的城市科学社区和农村土著社区如何有效地相互交流，特别是当一些科学家是土著时?国家法律和政策机制如何能够减轻环境破坏，而不是助长这种破坏?这些是本期提出的一些问题。作者来自不同的背景，俄罗斯人和非俄罗斯人，农村和城市，科学和政治，活动家和学者。每一篇文章都有资格成为最优秀、最广泛意义上的人类学。作者在他们的描述是民族志，敏感的人权在许多层面上，并努力准确地描绘他们的对话者的声音。尽管在欧洲或以英语为主导的世界中，它们的场所和背景可能并不为人所熟知或理解，但这里的每一个案例都在当地以外产生了共鸣。其中一些因其令人震惊的价值而短暂出现在国际新闻中，无论是2020 - 2022年夏季从俄罗斯远东地区蔓延到阿拉斯加的大火，《欧亚人类学与考古学2020》，VOL. 59, no . 3-4, 167-176 https://doi.org/10.1080/10611959.2020.2139534
{"title":"Introduction: Ecology Lessons: Community Solidarity, Indigenous Knowledge, Civic Society in Crisis","authors":"Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer","doi":"10.1080/10611959.2020.2139534","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10611959.2020.2139534","url":null,"abstract":"As Russia’s society has been wrenched by the war in Ukraine and civicpolitical divisions at home, one of its most critical problems, the environment, has been pushed aside. Yet ecological values and activism are more important than ever, as Russia’s citizens must contend with the exacerbation of natural resource destruction and climate crisis ramifications on an accelerated and unprecedented scale. The articles featured in this finale double issue of our journal were solicited well before the war began in February 2022, but most have been written and revised since, with each author feeling a sense of urgency and distress. What began as a project to highlight the ecology activist successes in a few high-profile cases illustrating civic society mobilization in Russia has instead moved to analyzing disaster zones in various degrees of devastation. What can we learn from the experiences of valiant ecology activists and besieged civic society leaders? How can Indigenous knowledge gleaned and practiced over centuries help in managing ecological and societal stresses? How can Russia’s urban scientific and rural Indigenous communities communicate productively with each other, especially when some scientists are Indigenous? How could state legal and policy mechanisms mitigate environmental destruction rather than abet it? These are some of the questions asked in this issue. The authors come from diverse backgrounds, Russian and non-Russian, rural and urban, scientific and political, activist and scholarly. Each article qualifies as anthropology in the best, broadest sense of the word. The authors are ethnographic in their descriptions, sensitive to human rights at many levels, and strive to accurately portray the voices of their interlocutors. Each case featured here resonates beyond the local, although their venues and contexts may not be well known or understood in the European or English-language-oriented world. Some have briefly appeared in the international news due to their shock value, whether massive fires that spread smoke from Far East Russia to Alaska in the summers of 2020–2022, ANTHROPOLOGY & ARCHEOLOGY OF EURASIA 2020, VOL. 59, NOS. 3–4, 167–176 https://doi.org/10.1080/10611959.2020.2139534","PeriodicalId":35495,"journal":{"name":"Anthropology and Archeology of Eurasia","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43245607","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-10-01DOI: 10.1080/10611959.2020.2139555
N. I. Novikova
ABSTRACT The article describes the author’s extensive fieldwork on Sakhalin island, covering the development and difficulties of establishing Indigenous entrepreneurship in the sphere of fishing. Legal restrictions at the federal level include narrow definitions of “territories of traditional land use,” and inadequate understanding of the importance of flexible fishing calendars and creative, culturally oriented use of modern technologies. Nivkhi Indigenous values of moderation, customary law, and feeding extended families have contended with greedy newcomer businesses that have fished out much of southern Sakhalin with industrial-scale fishing operations and fish farming. The author argues that Indigenous access to aquatic biological resources should be broadened, so that Indigenous peoples cognizant of sustainability are not accused of being poachers on their own lands and fishing grounds.
{"title":"Aboriginal Entrepreneurship in the Sphere of Fishing: The Example of Sakhalin","authors":"N. I. Novikova","doi":"10.1080/10611959.2020.2139555","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10611959.2020.2139555","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The article describes the author’s extensive fieldwork on Sakhalin island, covering the development and difficulties of establishing Indigenous entrepreneurship in the sphere of fishing. Legal restrictions at the federal level include narrow definitions of “territories of traditional land use,” and inadequate understanding of the importance of flexible fishing calendars and creative, culturally oriented use of modern technologies. Nivkhi Indigenous values of moderation, customary law, and feeding extended families have contended with greedy newcomer businesses that have fished out much of southern Sakhalin with industrial-scale fishing operations and fish farming. The author argues that Indigenous access to aquatic biological resources should be broadened, so that Indigenous peoples cognizant of sustainability are not accused of being poachers on their own lands and fishing grounds.","PeriodicalId":35495,"journal":{"name":"Anthropology and Archeology of Eurasia","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48794627","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-10-01DOI: 10.1080/10611959.2020.2139537
Olga Ustyuzhantseva
ABSTRACT The agency of citizens in influencing the environmental agenda in Krasnoyarsk is analyzed, with special attention to the role of online ecology activism. The ecology and politics of “black sky” pollution is discussed, as well as the concept of “citizen science,” based on a possible “democratization of data.” Background and history of industrialization of the region is provided, as is comparative context for other ecology protests. The author argues that her internet ethnography case provides some differences from “traditional” eco-activism practiced in the city, in terms of statements and goals, as well as understanding environmental problems. She theorizes about the constructedness and contingency of environmental activism.
{"title":"Citizen Agency and Ecology in Krasnoyarsk","authors":"Olga Ustyuzhantseva","doi":"10.1080/10611959.2020.2139537","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10611959.2020.2139537","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The agency of citizens in influencing the environmental agenda in Krasnoyarsk is analyzed, with special attention to the role of online ecology activism. The ecology and politics of “black sky” pollution is discussed, as well as the concept of “citizen science,” based on a possible “democratization of data.” Background and history of industrialization of the region is provided, as is comparative context for other ecology protests. The author argues that her internet ethnography case provides some differences from “traditional” eco-activism practiced in the city, in terms of statements and goals, as well as understanding environmental problems. She theorizes about the constructedness and contingency of environmental activism.","PeriodicalId":35495,"journal":{"name":"Anthropology and Archeology of Eurasia","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59600048","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-10-01DOI: 10.1080/10611959.2020.2139535
Karina I. Gorbacheva
ABSTRACT The article describes the results of research on the civic protest in the Republic of Bashkortostan against the destruction of the limestone mountain top [shihan] at Kushtau, a world geological heritage site. The subject of the research is the manipulations of public consciousness during the environmental conflict and how they were overcome. The research is based on the theory of manipulation of public consciousness, which explains the achievement of a certain level of consent in society, as well as passive behavior in a situation of social conflict, through the use of manipulative methods in information policy. Diverse channels for the dissemination of information on the topic of Kushtau are analyzed by the author, identifying the application of manipulative methods. Materials in the mass information media and other information sources were analyzed to determine to what extent the images of the situation offered by various actors corresponded to the real state of affairs. The methods of the manipulations are systematized. Analysis includes data from in-depth interviews, which allowed determination of the level of awareness of persons who had originally come from Bashkortostan and were currently residing in other Russian regions about the problem of the industrial development of the Kushtau shihan. The civic movement in defense of Kushtau is examined to show how it overcame manipulative influences, which led to a decision by the authorities on saving the mountain and providing it with state protection.
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Pub Date : 2020-10-01DOI: 10.1080/10611959.2020.2139543
V. Solovyeva, L. Vinokurova, V. Filippova
ABSTRACT Recently, the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) has become the center of worldwide attention due to large-scale fires that engulfed the tundra in 2020 and the taiga in 2021. Unprecedented forest fires caused enormous economic and environmental damage and left an indisputable mark on the republic’s society, which rallied in the face of fire danger. Along with fires, the Indigenous people of the North also must cope with and adapt to other natural disasters, including floods. As natural disasters become more frequent and extensive, humanity faces acute questions concerning successful adaptation to climate change’s negative impacts. Studying the experience of the Indigenous population can help provide answers. They are the first to bear the brunt of climate change, given their traditional land management, and they are the first to solve the problems of adaptation to changing conditions. The article discusses preventive measures and ways of adaptation of the Indigenous peoples of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) to forest fires and floods. Environmental lessons learned from past disasters are analyzed, drawing on Indigenous knowledge and science, to prevent their recurrence.
{"title":"Fire and Water: Indigenous Ecological Knowledge and Climate Challenges in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)","authors":"V. Solovyeva, L. Vinokurova, V. Filippova","doi":"10.1080/10611959.2020.2139543","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10611959.2020.2139543","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Recently, the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) has become the center of worldwide attention due to large-scale fires that engulfed the tundra in 2020 and the taiga in 2021. Unprecedented forest fires caused enormous economic and environmental damage and left an indisputable mark on the republic’s society, which rallied in the face of fire danger. Along with fires, the Indigenous people of the North also must cope with and adapt to other natural disasters, including floods. As natural disasters become more frequent and extensive, humanity faces acute questions concerning successful adaptation to climate change’s negative impacts. Studying the experience of the Indigenous population can help provide answers. They are the first to bear the brunt of climate change, given their traditional land management, and they are the first to solve the problems of adaptation to changing conditions. The article discusses preventive measures and ways of adaptation of the Indigenous peoples of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) to forest fires and floods. Environmental lessons learned from past disasters are analyzed, drawing on Indigenous knowledge and science, to prevent their recurrence.","PeriodicalId":35495,"journal":{"name":"Anthropology and Archeology of Eurasia","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44264345","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-10-01DOI: 10.1080/10611959.2020.2139546
A. Suleymanov, Liliya I. Vinokurova
ABSTRACT The Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) is famous as a region of extremely low natural temperatures, a territory of cold and the phenomena of snow, ice, and permafrost that owe their existence to it. The anthropology of cold, which the authors term cryoanthropology, including analysis of its role and place in the economic and sociocultural practices of the region’s Indigenous population, is relevant but little studied. The authors present experiences applying traditional knowledge of the Sakha (Yakuts) about cold, allowing for its resources to be used in everyday functioning for life sustenance, in various kinds of economic activity. They analyze systemic ethnocultural adaptations to phenomena connected with natural low temperatures. Drawing on data predominantly from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the authors integrate examples of the “dialogue” of rural inhabitants with the cold, especially its benefits.
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Pub Date : 2020-10-01DOI: 10.1080/10611959.2020.2139558
O. Murashko
ABSTRACT Discussion of a new Federation of Russia law that requires Indigenous people to register and be identified as members of “numerically small peoples” is provided by a leading expert, who has served as an advisor to officials and Indigenous leaders at many levels. The clumsy application of the law, as well as possibly divisive intents behind the restrictive listings of Indigenous individuals, has created fear within many Indigenous communities of Russia. Successful registration in some communities is as low as 10 percent. At stake is not only identity but lands, resources and definitions of livelihood. Analysis includes Indigenous voices, and specific cases of exclusion that point to trends of resources development and land grabs winning over human rights in Russia.
{"title":"On Defining and Registering the Indigenous Peoples of The North, Siberia and the Far East: Legal Process Documentation and Ramifications","authors":"O. Murashko","doi":"10.1080/10611959.2020.2139558","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10611959.2020.2139558","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Discussion of a new Federation of Russia law that requires Indigenous people to register and be identified as members of “numerically small peoples” is provided by a leading expert, who has served as an advisor to officials and Indigenous leaders at many levels. The clumsy application of the law, as well as possibly divisive intents behind the restrictive listings of Indigenous individuals, has created fear within many Indigenous communities of Russia. Successful registration in some communities is as low as 10 percent. At stake is not only identity but lands, resources and definitions of livelihood. Analysis includes Indigenous voices, and specific cases of exclusion that point to trends of resources development and land grabs winning over human rights in Russia.","PeriodicalId":35495,"journal":{"name":"Anthropology and Archeology of Eurasia","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45430761","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-10-01DOI: 10.1080/10611959.2020.2139540
P. Sulyandziga
ABSTRACT The turbulent history of one of the most important natural preserves of Russia, surrounding the Bikin River, sometimes called Russia’s Amazon, is related by one of the park’s founders. This Indigenous narrator interweaves the story of his people, the Udegé, together with their relationship to the sacred Bikin taiga lands, and to issues of leadership on many levels. The case is significant because it features one of the few large Indigenous territories that have been saved from development (timber, gold, road building) by continuously scheming outsiders, and for its depiction of the importance of Indigenous solidarity combined with guarantees of flexible traditional land use (hunting, trapping, fishing). Russian ecology activists and international allies in the battle for the park played key roles, as did the presence on Bikin territories of the charismatic largest cat in the world, the Siberian tiger.
{"title":"Battle for Bikin: How a Far Eastern Park Was Born","authors":"P. Sulyandziga","doi":"10.1080/10611959.2020.2139540","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10611959.2020.2139540","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The turbulent history of one of the most important natural preserves of Russia, surrounding the Bikin River, sometimes called Russia’s Amazon, is related by one of the park’s founders. This Indigenous narrator interweaves the story of his people, the Udegé, together with their relationship to the sacred Bikin taiga lands, and to issues of leadership on many levels. The case is significant because it features one of the few large Indigenous territories that have been saved from development (timber, gold, road building) by continuously scheming outsiders, and for its depiction of the importance of Indigenous solidarity combined with guarantees of flexible traditional land use (hunting, trapping, fishing). Russian ecology activists and international allies in the battle for the park played key roles, as did the presence on Bikin territories of the charismatic largest cat in the world, the Siberian tiger.","PeriodicalId":35495,"journal":{"name":"Anthropology and Archeology of Eurasia","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48266834","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-04-02DOI: 10.1080/10611959.2020.1950467
Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer
Were classical Greek legends of Eurasian steppe heroine-warriors and female hunters mythic fantasies or based on reality? Was Herodotus, who wrote about them in the fifth century BCE, more accurate in his historical descriptions and wiser in his analysis than previously thought, despite being interpreted for many centuries as sensational? What can lavish graves of goldbedecked females buried with weapons reveal about our own projections and assumptions regarding status and gender? Using the lens of gender-sensitive archeology, our stereotypes of male warrior-leaders have rarely been as challenged, as when a Scythian period grave found in Tuva, initially viewed as that of a male youth, proved to be female after DNA analysis. My fascination with female hunters was sparked in the 1970s when I first learned about them in Ob-Ugrian Khanty villages, where they were anomalies who had gone extra milesto feed their families in times of trouble. At the same time, I learned that a secret “traditional Khanty burial” in the early 1970s, against all Soviet prohibitions and practices, had been conducted for a revered male elder, complete with a horse sacrifice. Could any woman ever have been buried with such honor? The logic of female role flexibility was palpable and confirmed many years later in Turkic Sakha (Yakut) villages of the Far North, where other female hunters flourished and were admired. Harder to confirm were historical traces of women buried with horse sacrifices, although this too has been documented beyond doubt in the case of the famed royal Pazyryk “Altai princess,” discovered in 1993 and discussed ahead. Questions of a range of female roles and statuses existing in numerous nomadic societies over the huge swath of territory from the Black Sea to Mongolia are broached in this issue, which also ranges widely in time. Besides potential hunters and warriors, female claims to respect or fame appear more often to have come from priestess-like roles, as evident in some female burials with altar-like stone stands. ANTHROPOLOGY & ARCHEOLOGY OF EURASIA 2020, VOL. 59, NO. 2, 79–83 https://doi.org/10.1080/10611959.2020.1950467
{"title":"Introduction: Amazons and Dianas? Female Burials in Perspective","authors":"Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer","doi":"10.1080/10611959.2020.1950467","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10611959.2020.1950467","url":null,"abstract":"Were classical Greek legends of Eurasian steppe heroine-warriors and female hunters mythic fantasies or based on reality? Was Herodotus, who wrote about them in the fifth century BCE, more accurate in his historical descriptions and wiser in his analysis than previously thought, despite being interpreted for many centuries as sensational? What can lavish graves of goldbedecked females buried with weapons reveal about our own projections and assumptions regarding status and gender? Using the lens of gender-sensitive archeology, our stereotypes of male warrior-leaders have rarely been as challenged, as when a Scythian period grave found in Tuva, initially viewed as that of a male youth, proved to be female after DNA analysis. My fascination with female hunters was sparked in the 1970s when I first learned about them in Ob-Ugrian Khanty villages, where they were anomalies who had gone extra milesto feed their families in times of trouble. At the same time, I learned that a secret “traditional Khanty burial” in the early 1970s, against all Soviet prohibitions and practices, had been conducted for a revered male elder, complete with a horse sacrifice. Could any woman ever have been buried with such honor? The logic of female role flexibility was palpable and confirmed many years later in Turkic Sakha (Yakut) villages of the Far North, where other female hunters flourished and were admired. Harder to confirm were historical traces of women buried with horse sacrifices, although this too has been documented beyond doubt in the case of the famed royal Pazyryk “Altai princess,” discovered in 1993 and discussed ahead. Questions of a range of female roles and statuses existing in numerous nomadic societies over the huge swath of territory from the Black Sea to Mongolia are broached in this issue, which also ranges widely in time. Besides potential hunters and warriors, female claims to respect or fame appear more often to have come from priestess-like roles, as evident in some female burials with altar-like stone stands. ANTHROPOLOGY & ARCHEOLOGY OF EURASIA 2020, VOL. 59, NO. 2, 79–83 https://doi.org/10.1080/10611959.2020.1950467","PeriodicalId":35495,"journal":{"name":"Anthropology and Archeology of Eurasia","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42744982","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-04-02DOI: 10.1080/10611959.2020.1950476
A. Kharinskii, D. Erdenebaatar, M. Portniagin, S. Argilbayar, D. Kichigin
ABSTRACT In July 2017, a joint archeological expedition from Irkutsk National Research Technical University and Ulaanbaatar State University excavated at the Nogoon Gozgor 1 burial site in the Northern Khövsgöl area. The initial plan was to conduct the work at two burial complexes, nos. 5 and 6. By the beginning of the excavation it was clear that burial no. 6 had been plundered by modern-day grave robbers: a grave robbers’ shaft with a depth of up to 1.2 meters had been sunk in the center of the above-grave structure. Uncovered in excavation heaps of discarded soil were human and sheep bones and fragments of silk textile depicting peonies and parrots, stylized clouds, and undulating ornamentations. An excavation with an area of 32 square meters was marked out at grave no. 5. Discovered under oval masonry work 5 by 3 meters in size at a depth of 75 to 80 centimeters below the modern-daysurface of the land were the remains of a buried woman and pieces of a bokka—a birchbark frame for a headdress. It is the first time such an object has been found in the Northern Khövsgöl area. It has been established that the Nogoon Gozgor 1 burial site dates to the thirteenth through fourteenth centuries and was left by the indigenous population, connected to the global historical and cultural processes flowing through Eurasia in the era of the Mongol Empire.
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